Here's a fun thing to do at work, but only if you sit close enough to the microwave with the numbers that don't work so good:

When you finish zapping your stuff.  Discreetly hit the '1' button as you close the door.  The next person to use it may not clear the keypad before entering their time and be surprised when their lunch goes for 12 minutes instead of 2.

Ha!

Or just (Democrat) politics, as usual.  Only days after Gore conspicuously accepted the Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth, a propaganda piece on energy depletion, ABC News exposes Gore as a incredible hypocrite.  It seems that Mr Environment uses 20 times the amount of energy as the national average.  While I don't condemn him for that practice, despite a personal feeling that it is a ridiculous inefficiency, I do find him in contempt of humanity and desire his public exposure as a fraud.  This is the politico that is constantly harping that I, and you, are destroying the planet through frivolous activities as driving to work and heating our homes.

Shenanigans!!  I am calling Shenanigans on Al Gore.

The man is a dratkcuf.  If I find out that he was behind the DST embarrasment, I just may have to start a crusade against the corrupt bastard.

Yep, John Scalzi's latest is ticked off the list.  I have literally read all of his fiction to date.  (Well, I only listened to The Sagan Diaries, though I am glad I didn't waste my limited reading time on it.  I didn't even listen to all of it, it was a bit too much fanboi for me.)  Don't let the goofy cover art or the odd name dissuade you, The Android's Dream is right up there with the rest of Scalzi's titles in quality and enjoyment.

The story of Harry Creek, UNE Diplomat and retired Combat Veteran, follows the mystery of the Evolved Lamb, the hostile alien nation of Nidu, and a chase through the galaxy.  Creek is the only one with enough answers to unravell the tangle, at least with the help of his rather unique AI.  As the opposing factions start closing in, it looks like there is no way out, but for an interesting twist hinted at by the Churches secret AI that brings the whole mess swirling into a very interesting climax.

Scalzi's 3rd major novel has absolutely nothing to do with the previous two books.  TAD stands alone, so far.  It is the story of inter-system intrique in the style of Robert Ludlum, with the humor of Christopher Moore, and the sci-fi flavor of Robert Heinlein.  Good, not great, plot twists mixed with just the right amount of believable future tech make a balanced story that I really enjoyed.  I was very impressed by the InfoSys tech that Scalzi invented for this book, seeing as I am in the industry and he is not.  Some cute holes, but nothing to gripe about.  Well, done, John.  I am still a fan!

Did I do a review of Agent to the Stars?  I can't remember.  It was not actually published, but was released as a CC LIT copy on scalzi.com.  It was much later published by Subterranean Press, a niche publishing house, for a limited collectors run.  I did not purchase it, but did read the LIT version soon after getting my IPaq 2 or 3 years ago.

And sorry for the bad review.  Just not on top of my game tonight...

I heard from a reputable program this morning that up to 83% of Americans believe that Christianity, including Creationism and the Resurrection, is true.

Yet, strangely, as many as 40% believe that astrology is also true, despite the fact that it is entirely contrary to Christianity.

I know what I believe:  Sometimes it is embarrassing to be an American.

From an email chain my CIO forwarded to everyone:

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming : Woo Hoo, what a ride!"

Scott Hanselman always has great tricks for developers.  Here are a list of registry tweaks to make system administration much easier and flexible for XP.  Use at your own risk!

OK, had a short interruption in service when I setup the new router.  Between Cox reassigning my IP and issues with the port forwarding, I couldn't get everything synced up.  Got it now so everything should resume as normal. 

I optimized my server a bit to get this running a bit faster as well.  Let's see how that works out.  I will plan an upgrade for it later this year, when I have some time to work on it.